“Then they gave lots to them and the lot fell upon Matthias and he was counted with the Eleven Apostles”
One of my favorite Comedies Movies is “The Replacements” staring, Keanu Reeves, Brooke Langton and Gene Hackman. The story describes the transformation of men and women who considered themselves losers. They all had failures in their lives and society never thought that they would make anything of themselves, but there was redemption for them. They had to have faith in themselves where they they did not. Together the replacement overcame the failures that held them back.
It was not luck that Matthias was chosen. “There are no coincidences with God”. He was the replacement for Judas. Jesus plan for His Church to grow needed twelve apostles.
Jesus needed the twelve apostles. Why twelve?
I mentioned this a number of years ago, but twelve was important. The twelve apostles with Matthias was the seed that Jesus installed. These twelve would each make 12 more replacements and then the exponential number would grow to 144. These 144 in turn each made 12 more. The Church grew. It was not only the generation of Jesus but the next and the next. The Church grew because of new replacements on into the next generation and on into today.
Our Church leaders today are the replacements in the line of Melchizedek. Our generation is the replacement from the former generation. We, just like Saint Matthias, are the bearers of the faith. We just like our parents and clergy go beyond our failures and carry the faith to the world and the generations that follow us.
We all have faults and failures in our lives. However, as Phil 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” The next generation is waiting for us.
We have have the seed and the skills in each of us of redemption for our failures. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a reflection on being chosen by Jesus. We have the same Gospel today.
We are each chosen by Jesus to overcome the past. It was not by chance. He chose us. Today we need to pray for all the successors of Saint Peter and the Apostles who help us to overcome.
God Love You Always
Bob Burford
Picture Credit : “Saint Matthias” by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
